Will to Protect
by chibikaty
Summary: After his untimely demise, Ace decides to haunt Luffy. Too bad for him that Buggy is the only one who can see him. Still, such obstacles are minor in Ace's quest to protect his little brother.


**Will to Protect**

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Summary: After his untimely demise, Ace decides to haunt Luffy. Too bad for him that Buggy is the only one who can see him. Still, such obstacles are minor in Ace's quest to protect his little brother.

* * *

Author's Note: Do you know what day today is? Today is One Piece's Anniversary! One Piece was first serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump on August 4, 1997—15 years ago from today. Everyone, do what I did, and go read some One Piece to celebrate. It's not too late!

Happy Birthday, One Piece! Thank you for everything, Eiichiro Oda!

* * *

XXX

The first time Buggy saw Ace, he quite literally walked through him.

Buggy was at Sabaody Archipelago, heading for the docks to look at ships for sale. In addition to a large number of former Impel-Down prisoners who had joined his crew, other eager recruits were continuously flocking to his banner uninvited, and he needed a few new ships to fit all of them. He brought along his new crewmate Galdino (the former Mr. 3) as he was brilliant at negotiating prices. Buggy strutted through the crowd with the pride of a top-class Pirate Captain, newfound since his famous aid in the Impel Down escape, knowing everyone would part before him.

Which was why he was so annoyed when a dark-cloaked figure stepped directly into his path. Buggy marched forward, determined to bowl this insolent pest over.

Then something—odd—happened. He felt no impact, but a tingle like an electric shock…and then the stranger was behind him, striding onwards.

Buggy whirled around. "Hey, did you just bump into me! I'm talking to you!"

An old man standing nearby said, "I didn't think I bumped into you, I'm very sorry."

"Not you, him! Hey, cloak guy!"

The old man looked around in puzzlement, despite facing straight at the man Buggy was pointing at.

The ex-Mr. 3 said, "I didn't see anyone walk into you."

Enraged, Buggy shouted, "Hey, you!"

The cloaked man stopped, looked around, and then pointed at himself.

"Yes, I mean you! Get back here and tell everyone that you bumped into me!"

The man threw back his hood to reveal the beaming face of Portgas D. Ace. "You can see me?"

Buggy felt the color drain straight out of his face, all the way to his red nose. "No way. I can't be dead! I have too much treasure to live for!"

"You're the first person ever who noticed me. Do you have some kind of ghost-sensing ability?"

Buggy took a step back, and quickly turned around. "No, I didn't see anyone. My mistake," he said to Mr. 3, hurrying away.

"Wait, come back here! I haven't been able to talk to anyone before." As Ace ran forward (moving straight through several bystanders) his cloak vanished, leaving him dressed in his usual shirtless outfit. Buggy whimpered at this new evidence of supernatural ability and began to walk faster.

"Yoo-hoo!" Ace waved a hand in front of Buggy's face.

Buggy said between clenched teeth, "Very sorry about your untimely demise, you were a good guy when you were alive, but dead people shouldn't talk so please go away."

"What was that? I couldn't hear you," Mr. 3 said, looking at Buggy with doubt.

Ace said, "Relax, I'm not a bad omen or anything. And I'm not planning on haunting you—I need to find my brother. I've been looking everywhere for him, but see, I can't ask for directions."

Buggy stopped. "If I find your brother, will you let me pretend I don't see you and go away?"

Mr. 3 said, "I don't have a brother—I was an only child, actually. What was that about going away?"

Ace said, "You have a deal."

Buggy turned to his crewmate and accomplice. "You should go look at the ships yourself. I have something I need to take care off."

Mr. 3 left, shooting bemused glances at Buggy over his shoulder.

Once alone, Buggy turned back to Ace and said, "So why do you think your brother is even on this island? No one has heard anything about him in two years!"

"Mommy, is that clown talking to himself?"

"Shh, sweetie, just look away and keep walking."

Okay, so maybe Buggy wasn't entirely alone, being on a public street. This would not do wonders for his reputation.

Ace said, "I know Luffy is here because I've been following him around ever since I died. And boy, does he need looking after. There was this one time, he was training on the island alone, and of course he decides he's going to go swimming, except this was a saline lake, connected to the ocean-"

"I'm really not interested in hearing cute stories about your brother, Fire Fist."

Ace pouted. "But I haven't had anyone to tell these to since I died! Apparently ghosts aren't very common. You have to defeat the gatekeeper to the afterlife in single combat in order to stay and all that. Anyway, after following him around for about two years, I took my eyes off my little brother for a few minutes, and next thing I know he's gone, and I end up following around this fat guy who is calling himself Straw Hat Luffy."

"And you need me to ask around after Luffy for you, so you can find out where he is now."

"If you would be so kind, it would be a great favor to me." Ace's grateful smile resembled a slasher grin, and even knowing that Ace couldn't make physical contact with him, Buggy was still intimidated.

"Then let's get it over with," he said.

"It can't be too hard to find him, with the ruckus Luffy makes," Ace said comfortingly.

Unfortunately, asking after Monkey D. Luffy just led them to a massive brute with a straw hat walking around the Archipelago with a bunch of ugly hanger-ons shouting "Make way for Captain Luffy!"

"Drat, him again. Aw, my brother has his first impersonator, it's so cute," Ace sniffed.

However, Ace was less amused when a second try (this time Buggy used a description of Luffy instead of his name) also led them back to the fake Straw Hat, standing in front of a massive rally of pirates trying to attract crewmembers.

"I can't believe that Luffy hasn't shown up yet, if only because he mistook some of the fakes for his own crew," Ace complained. "Of all the times for him to decide he's capable of keeping a low profile. If he sets sail without making a commotion, then I'll never be able to find him on the open ocean."

Buggy said, "So we've failed. Can I leave now?"

"Hey, I'm not too happy that you're the only one who can see me either. I'd much rather talk to Luffy."

"So he can't see you, very tragic and all, so why don't you just give up and move along to heaven like a good little dead person?"

Ace said, "Well, I was going to pass over to the other side but then the gatekeeper happened to mention that my _biological_ father was kicking up a big fuss about how much he wanted to see me, so I thought, screw that, I'm staying here."

Buggy groaned, "So why can I see you?"

"Beats me, I don't know much about this being dead stuff. Come on, let's go check restaurants. The one with people hauling in large quantities of food probably has Luffy inside."

Alas, Luffy had a pirate's lunchbox courtesy of Boa Hancock, so after an exhausting search of local eateries they had still turned up no sign of the elusive pirate captain.

It was Cabaji and Mohji who caught up with Buggy while he was interviewing yet another restaurant owner. "Captain, we found you! Everyone is wondering where you are, we should go back to the ship."

"See, I have to get back to my ship now," Buggy said to thin air.

"Look, it's like Galdino said, he's talking to himself!" Mohji exclaimed.

"Shh," Cabaji said, elbowing him in the stomach.

It was at that moment that a herd of marines thundered past. "Men, regroup around the Pacifistas! Call for back-up!"

Ace perked up. "There my brother is! Hey, we'd better stop these guys before they reach him. I'd hate if they got in the way of Luffy's departure."

Buggy didn't question Ace's assumption that Luffy was in the center of this disturbance—he wasn't stupid. Instead, he said, "And why do you think I'm going to help you?"

Ace replied, "I've heard that ghost can paralyze people while they're asleep." A ball of fire lit up in his hand. "I also heard that even when you don't have a body, sometimes your Devil Fruit Powers still work."

Buggy said, "Cabaji, Mohji, gather up our men. We have some marines to deal with."

Buggy would have put up much more of a protest, if he'd known that he was going to end up fighting a Pacifista. Luckily, he had a successful strategy of standing a little away from the fight looking awesome while the much-more-powerful-than-he-was pirates who'd escaped with him from Impel Down did all the fighting for him.

He watched Mohji sail past and fly into a wall. Too bad not all of his crew were as good at evasion as he was.

"Why are we fighting Straw Hat Luffy's enemies anyway?" Mohji wailed in protest.

One of the ex-convicts shouted, "Isn't it because Straw Hat Luffy and Captain Buggy are old friends?"

"Nah, it's not even that. Captain Buggy is just such a great guy, he can't resist helping anyone in trouble!"

"Long live Captain Buggy!" the pirates screamed as they charged.

Ace popped up by Buggy's shoulder, hovering shamelessly. "Bye, Buggy! I have to leave, my brother's getting ready to cast off and I don't want to lose sight of him again. See you later!"

_See you later? I certainly hope not_, Buggy thought.

* * *

Unfortunately for Captain Buggy, fate had other ideas.

Joining the crew of Golden Lion Shiki had seemed like such a great idea at the time. After Impel Down, Buggy had acquired a veritable army of pirates under his command, many of whom were much stronger than he was, and at times he started to worry that he was a little out of his league. Not enough to give up this power, no. But having an even stronger pirate who he could hide behind might not be a bad idea, and from his days in Gol D. Roger's crew, Buggy considered Shiki one of the strongest alive.

Shiki's plan to conquer East Blue—it sounded like the kind of genius that Buggy had thought only_ he_ was capable of. Maybe Shiki would let him have his own island—King Buggy sounded like a great title.

Shiki also sure did know how to treat his guests, booze and food everywhere. So naturally, the last thing Buggy wanted to see was Portgas D. Ace's shirtless chest popping out of air right in front of his nose when he was taking a long drink. Needless to say, Buggy spit-taked.

Ace did not seem bothered by alcohol spewing from Buggy's nose straight through his transparent body. "I need to talk to you! Come outside, right now."

"Why would I-" Buggy started to complain. Then he looked around, remembered the weeks of odd stares from his crew after the last time he'd gotten a reputation of talking to thin air, and followed Ace outside.

"Seriously, I'm begging you, go exorcise yourself already," Buggy grumbled as he made his way into the open night air.

"But I thought we were friends," Ace said. Buggy felt an emotion that in another person might have been guilt, but for Buggy it translated more as mild indigestion.

"Nothing against you, but I believe in a firm boundary between the living and the dead."

Ace said, "It's funny how you feel that way, with your sixth sense and all."

Buggy protested, "I don't have a sixth sense! The only ghost I keep seeing is you!"

"I don't have time to discuss that. Luffy is in serious trouble! That bastard Shiki got the jump on him, and he and his crew ended up trapped in a giant pillar. The only reason Shiki didn't kill him was because Nami agreed to join his crew in exchange—but then I overheard him say that once she was out of sight he was going to go back and kill Luffy while he's still trapped in the pillar and helpless, to 'avoid any trouble.' I have to save him!"

"Tough luck, but I don't see how any of this is my problem," Buggy said bluntly. "Straw Hat is definitely not my friend."

"I'll haunt you. I'll follow you around everywhere and talk to you until people think you're crazy. I'll paralyze you when you're asleep, shoot fire at you, and drag you to the underworld!"

Buggy quailed, but he said, "If I go against Shiki, I'm toast. It doesn't matter what you say, you can't threaten anything worse than certain death."

Ace sagged. "I can't actually do any of that stuff. I was just bluffing."

"Why you-!"

"Please, I have to save my little brother." Ace looked like he was about to lower his head to the ground and beg, which just made Buddy feel awkward. He quickly stepped forward, planning to walk through Ace and get as far away from the ghost as possible.

However, it didn't quite work that way this time. There was a tingle—but then Buggy felt his entire body go numb.

"Hey, am I possessing you?" Buggy heard his own voice say out loud. His head looked up and down his body—against his will.

"Get out right now! Stop poking my nose!" Buggy shouted as Ace used his hands to feel the round red nose. Buggy's words had no sound.

"Thanks for lending me your body, Buggy. You're a true friend."

"I am not! Don't pretend you can't hear me, come back!"

Ace took off in a run in the direction he'd seen Shiki going. "I'm coming to save you Luffy!"

Five minutes later, Buggy could only wail in terror as his fist smashed into Golden Lion Shiki's back. "It wasn't me, it was him! Cabaji, Mohji, someone save me!"

Shiki reeled backwards. Ace caught him under the jaw with another uppercut.

As the fight progressed, Buggy was astonished to see that Shiki was bleeding while the worst he had was sore hands. Well, it was the skill of Fire First Ace, Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, controlling his body.

Shiki sneered, "I never would have guessed that you were hiding such power, Buggy the Clown. Why haven't you even used your devil fruit power yet? Are you mocking me?"

"Oooo, right, devil fruit power," Ace said. He separated Buggy's arm from his shoulder, then stretched back his leg and punted the arm into Shiki's face, tripling the force of his hit. "Is that better?"

"I could have totally done that…if I'd ever thought of it…" Buggy muttered.

But it wasn't enough to take Golden Lion Shiki down for more than a few seconds. With his devil fruit powers, he sent a tree flying at Ace from behind and knocked him back. "Clever of you to disguise yourself as a weakling and plot to subvert my plan from the inside—but you've overestimated yourself."

Ace was on Buggy's feet and grinning. "We'll see about that."

"It's a pity, you would have made a better ally than I thought, Big Nose."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING BIG NOSE?!" Buggy shrieked.

The sheer force of his rage forced Ace out of his body. The ghost went flying straight into the air and landed with a bounce on the felled tree.

Buggy sweated frantically as Shiki summoned up a storm of rocks, earth, and other nearby objects, all directed at him. "Wait, can't we just talk about it?"

Two and a half minutes later, Buggy was imprisoned in another column of earth with nothing but his head sticking out. However, as Ace was happy to report, by the time Shiki made his way to the original pillar, Luffy was long gone.

"…So, then my brother and his friends strode into the room dressed in formal outfits. I think my heart almost stopped from pride. Why, I remember back when he wouldn't have been able to lift a coat that big off the floor, and now he-"

Buggy would have covered his ears if his hands weren't stuck in a pillar. "Can't you make yourself useful and get me out of here?"

"At the angle you're stuck in, not even if I possessed you again. And I can't exactly go for help either, but I'm sure if we wait long enough someone from your crew will come along and free you. The least I can do to express my gratitude is keep you company in the meantime."

"Stop pretending that I helped you of my own free will!"

"Did I tell you about the time I followed my brother to Fishman Island? So, there was this rowdy bunch of rebels with delusions of racial superiority causing trouble. And Captain Hody was like, 'Heaven has chosen us to hand down judgment to humanity' and my little brother was like, 'Gomu Gomu no Red Hawk' and-"

Buggy said, "Just go away already."

* * *

**Two weeks later, at Marine Headquarters**:

Two vice-admirals leaned over the table examining a map, a horde of subordinates surrounding them. "This data can't be right. Are you certain we're managing to track the location of Captain Buggy and his fleet accurately?"

"Our pigeons are usually quite reliable, sir. Also, agents from these two islands confirm sightings as expected."

The vice-admiral said, "But this pattern doesn't make any sense! Why is he going in zig-zags?"

"We don't know, but he can't possibly be following any log pose in existence. However, he still manages to keep moving forward."

"It's as if he has some mysterious power beyond our comprehension, that allows him to navigate the Grand Line in a way which no one has before. Captain Buggy—who or what are you?"

**One week earlier**:

"Hey, Buggy!"

Buggy looked up to see Ace's ghostly form perched on the figurehead of his ship. "Oh, it's_ you_. Is there a reason why you're still following me?"

"Well, I tried to possess other people, but it turns out I can't. And after the incident with Shiki, I realized that just watching Luffy when he's always in danger is too painful."

"So you're moving on to the other side?" Buggy asked hopefully.

"Ha ha ha, no. I was thinking that you could happen to direct your ship to the same general places Luffy goes, and then if things get hairy I can step in to help him."

"Are you out of your mind? No, no, absolutely not, no."

Buggy ignored the way his raised voice was gathering stares from the rest of his crew, and comments like, "Is he talking to his ship? Must be a mystical captain thing."

Ace said, "Please?"

"No!"

"Well, it's not as if I needed your permission." Buggy barely had time to process this as Ace leapt towards him.

Five minutes later, he regained use of his body in his cabin, and stormed back the deck. "Reverse direction! We're going back to following the log pose!"

Cabaji looked up, wide-eyed. "But you just told us to change direction!"

"And now I'm changing my mind! If I change it again, don't listen to me!"

"I'll try, but…you were a lot scarier when you wanted us to go the other way," Mohji said. Richie the lion ruffed his agreement.

Beside him, Ace said, "You know that I'm only going to get them to change directions again, don't you?"

"We'll see who can be more stubborn, or my name isn't the Amazing Captain Buggy!"

**Among the crew**:

"Did you hear how erratic the Captain's navigational patterns have become?"

"Yeah, but we haven't seen a single marine since then. They can't track us at all!"

"He's amazing! Long live Captain Buggy!"

Despite Buggy's best efforts, he never managed to entirely shake off Monkey D. Luffy.

* * *

Buggy's smile remained fixed on his face, but inwardly he was quaking in terror. The marines had finally found him, and they'd brought twice his numbers. Naturally he'd tried to run, but now he was backed against a cliff. He was rapidly thinking of a plan to get his other followers to open a hole for his ship to escape; if only he could find a plausible reason for the strategy so they didn't realize he was abandoning them until it was too late.

"Buggy! I happened to spot your ship—Luffy is docked at an island nearby—so I stopped by for a chat! I just had to tell someone the story of my brother's amazing triumph over Caesar Clown."

"A little busy right here," Buggy growled around his confident smile.

"Oh, that's okay. I'll just wait until you've beaten all of them," Ace looked around at the number of marines present, "Or until you've been thrown in a marine jail cell. You'll have plenty of time on your hands there, I would know."

Buggy shook all the way down to his pointy boots. Then a thought occurred to him. "Ace, old friend! You can help me out of this jam. Just possess my body and beat them up. You owe me for all those times bailing out your brother!"

Ace shrugged. "Well, I can't say I have any problems with kicking around a few marines. Might be good stress relief."

Five minutes later, Buggy was at the top of the world, single-handedly holding off four ships full of marines, as his crew sang his praises. The sound of increasing fame and fortune was even more like music to his ears (seriously, his crew's singing was pretty bad.)

Then one of the marines pointed at the sail of the ship and shouted, "Lieutenant, we have to get out of here before the rig goes!"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING BIG NOSE!" Buggy bellowed. Suddenly, his hands were his own again. He looked around frantically to see Ace waving from a point above him. Then a marine sent a spiked club into his head, knocking him into the ocean.

"Wait, come back, I wasn't done yet!" Buggy shouted at Ace as the sea rushed up towards him. A sea monster surfaced from the water and opened enormous green jaws.

Luckily, as soon as the sea monster realized how terrible Buggy tasted, it spit him out. He landed on the deck of the ship, and was relieved to see Ace rush towards him.

Even with one shoulder broken, Ace was still able to fend off the marines. Buggy's crew resumed cheering. By this time, half the marines were lying unconscious on battered ships.

A marine shouted, "Captain, we might not be able to get back to Headquarters! We have a dead pose!"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING RED NOSE!"

Buggy yelped in fear as the remaining marines—all twenty of them, including a captain with a devil fruit power—advanced on him, now alone. Fortunately he was only _half_ beaten to death before Ace was able to take over his body again.

The tale of how Captain Buggy went on to take out another full ship of marines despite bleeding from almost every part of his body quickly spread across the entire Grand Line. Alas, just as Ace was putting Buggy's fist through the last ship, one of Buggy's adoring crewmembers made the mistake of shouting, "Captain Buggy, oh how his legend grows!"

"WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT MY NOSE?"

Buggy watched in resigned terror as the ship's mast that Ace had been about to dodge fell on him.

* * *

**Many years later**:

The location was the End of the Grand Line. Marines from all over the world gathered outside Raftel, where Monkey D. Luffy was believed to have found the mysterious One Piece, with one goal in mind—to kill him before the public ever found out that there was a New Pirate King.

One figure stood before the entire massed force of the World Government. One man, a long cape following behind his back and a pirate's hat on his head, stood silhouetted before the misty island of Raftel, without even a weapon in his hand.

The marines whispered among themselves. "It's him! The enigmatic legend of the Grand Line. The one they call the Pirate King's Guardian Angel!"

As Ace dove towards the marines, Buggy wailed, "I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate my life!"

* * *

The End

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End note: I consider this fic to be my birthday present to One Piece. Once I realized that today was One Piece's anniversary, I had to write something One Piece related. Unfortunately I didn't have any ideas, so I got my sister to give me one instead (see evilchibis). Except, because this was written by me, instead of a heartwarming or tragic piece about Ace watching over Luffy, I ended up with Ace possessing Buggy and running around like a lunatic. Seriousness was doomed once Buggy got involved, I think.


End file.
